Audiobook Review – Every Day Is for the Theif by Teju Cole, Narrated by Peter Jay Fernandez (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 4 hours and 3 minutes
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: April 28, 2020
ASIN: B085STZ31D
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“A young Nigerian living in New York City goes home to Lagos for a short visit, finding a city both familiar and strange. In a city dense with story, the unnamed narrator moves through a mosaic of life, hoping to find inspiration for his own. He witnesses the “yahoo yahoo” diligently perpetrating email frauds from an Internet café, longs after a mysterious woman reading on a public bus who disembarks and disappears into a bookless crowd, and recalls the tragic fate of an 11-year-old boy accused of stealing at a local market.
Along the way, the man reconnects with old friends, a former girlfriend, and extended family, taps into the energies of Lagos life – creative, malevolent, ambiguous – and slowly begins to reconcile the profound changes that have taken place in his country and the truth about himself.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed this a ton. I wasn’t sure what to think going into this book. I had put it on my TBR list because it was a shorter novella audiobook I could get from the library. This was an intriguing and strangely engaging read.
The story is about a young man who is a writer in New York journeying back to his home town of Lagos, Nigeria. On his vacation there, he visits places from his childhood, old friends, and family and reflects on how Lagos has changed and how it compares to the rest of the world.
There are a lot of insightful discussions here. For example, he is especially focused on arts; fine art and music and how little of it there is because everyone is so focused on day-to-day survival. He also discusses the lack of museums and any recording of history; what is a nation without its history? Additionally, the lack of a manufacturing base and technology development means everything must be imported and people have very little understanding of the technology they do use, which has huge implications on society there.
I listened to this on audiobook and enjoyed it. It was well narrated and easy to listen to.
My Summary (4/5): Overall, I really enjoyed the wandering journey this novella took me on. I also really loved getting a closer day-to-day look at Nigeria, a country I know very little about. The writing is beautiful and the prose paints detailed and lifelike surroundings for the reader. I would highly recommend, this was very different from what I normally read but I really enjoyed it a lot.
